smith



(NoModeL) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

. J. Y. SMITH. METHOD or AND APPARATUS FOR CONSUMPTION or FUEL.

No. 503,501. Patentd Au .,15, 1893.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

Patented Aug. 15, 1893.

(No Model.)

J. Y. SMITH. METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONSUMPTION 0P FUEL. No. 503,501,

o wv v v 06900000000000 00000000000000 00000000000000 00000000000000 00000000000000 000000000000 oooblolubnfioduqblpo AY 0 AY Wflb QAHfiYM HHAPIINIUHFIIMIIHIH l x ma l m UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

JOHN Y. SMITH, OF DOYLESTOW'N, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE SMITH EXHAUST PIPE COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONSUMPTION OF FUEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 503,501, dated August 15, 1893.

Application filed October 31, 1892. Serial No. 450,489. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN Y. SMITH, of Doylestown, in the county of Bucks and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of and Apparatus for Promoting Consumption of Fuel; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompany- [0 ing drawings, forming a part of this specification, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

This invention relates to an improved method of and apparatus for promoting the consumption of fuel, particularly applicable to locomotive boilers in which an intermittent exhaust or blast is relied on to create the desired draft through the bed of fire in the fire box.

It has for its objects to promote combustion, prevent the formation of clinker and increase the steaming capacity or efficiency of the boiler.

To these ends it consists primarily in an improved method of manipulating the fuel While being burned and further in certain novel details of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts of the apparatus for carrying the method into operation all as will be now described and pointed out particularly in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through a locomotive boiler with which my present invention may 3 5 be carried into effect. Fig. 2 is a half section and half elevation of the exhaust mechanism.

Like letters of referencein the figures indicate the same parts.

In the ordinary operation of locomotive 4o boiler furnaces, and for that matter, other boilers and furnaces, it is well known that there is a constant accumulation of clinker due to the agglutination of the partially melted residuum of the fusible coal ashes,

which clinker is a constant source of annoyance, for besides the injury to the grate and fire box, it causes the bed of fire to cake, interrupting the draft and requiring the constant attention of the fireman to break up the cake and keep the grate free. Now, I

have discovered that if the fuel be kept in a constant state of agitation while undergoing combustion and at the same time a powerful draft is maintained the particles of silicious matter in the coal or the ash which ordinarily vitrify to form clinker, are broken up into minute particles or are prevented from agglutinatin g or of agglonlerating with the particles of coal or other matter to form clinker and are carried olf out of the fire boxand discharged with the lighter waste products of combustion. By this means then the substances Which form the clinker and which are ordinarily discharged through the grate, are caused to travel in the opposite direction, 1'. a, up away from the fire and outthrough the exits provided for the lighter products of combustion.

In carrying the new idea into practical operation I make use of an exhaust apparatus of a construction to be presently specifically described and which operating intermittingly will draw the fuel from the grate surface to a considerable distance when the full force of the exhaust is exerted, and during the intervals of rest, allow the same to fall nearly or quite back, thus keeping the fuel in constant agitation or so to speak, dancing on the grate, but in no instance is the exhaust strong enough or prolonged enough to carry the fuel up,out of the fire box or allow it to rest in a solid body long enough to cake or the clinker to vitrify and run or agglutinate.

In carrying my invention into practice, I divide the exhaust from each cylinder into a 8 5 series of blasts acting successively and each strong enough to raise the fuel (or in actual practice a portion of the fuel) a slight distance the effect being then for the first blast from the exhaust to raise the fuel and as the 0 force of the blast lessens it drops back part way when the next portion or blast of the ex haust comes into action raising it still farther. Then it again drops back a short distance until the last portion of the exhaust 5 acts and raises it to its greatest height. The interval between the cylinder exhausts is long enough for the fuel to drop quite back to the body of the fire or grate, but is so short owing to the prolonged action just described I00 that it has no time to set or cake, hence is readily raised again by the action of the next exhaust.

Referring now to the drawings, in which a mechanism especially adapted for carrying my nvention into practice is shown, the letter A indicates the boiler shell having the usual fire tubes B, fire box 0, fore end D and smoke stack D.

The fire box is of a construction adapted to prevent the ready escape of the particles of fuel and to create an exceedingly high temperature at a point above the fuel, so as to entirely burn all available heat producing products as the particles are carried away from the body of fuel, for which purpose the bridge wall Oris located at the rear end of" the fire box with its upper portion inclined from a point below the lowermost flue so as to leave a gradually diminishing space from a point well up in the fire box down to said lowermost fiue. The height of this bridge wall should be proportioned to the draft created through the fire box and it should be high enough to preventany of the fuel being drawn over the same when the draft is at its maximum.

In addition to the inclined bridge wall I preferably employ a series of tiles 0 resting on the inclined water tubes a passing through the fi re box, and leaving a relatively narrow openlng between the front ends of said tiles and the base of the bridge wall as shown by the arrow 0 with a wide Opening in rear of the tiles, as shown by the arrow 0 the effect of which is, to produce an eddy or space through which there is a less powerful draft lmmediately below the edge of the bridge wall and through which itwould be diificnlt for any of the heavy fuel particles to pass.

In addltion to the bridge wall and inclined tlles wlth spaces in front and rear of thesame, any of the well known expedients may be employed for increasing the heat generated with n the fire chamber or facilitating the feedlng of the fuel, &c., such for instance as the deflector plate C At the front of the fire box air enters ducts B which are preferably provided to supply an additional quantity of air, which passing up immediately adjacent the budge wall serves to protect the same in a measure from the injurious effects of the products of combustion and excessive heat to which 1t is subjected. The body of cooler air forms a film as it were over the inner surface of the bridge wall and flows away over the top of the same.

In the fore end or smoke box I locate the exhaust or intermittent draft creating apparatus, together with the necessary mechanism for controlling the draft through the fire box in a proper manner to secure the results before mentioned and which in general con struction and appearance resembles that shown 1n my contemporaneous application, Serial N 0. 432,887, filed May 13, 1892, to which reference is made. The ejector or exhaust apparatus proper receives the steam from the respective cylinders through the divided passage e in the base E, which latter, is adapted to seat and be bolted in the smoke box in the ordinary manner, and from the base of the ejector, the steam is conveyed and discharged through nozzles acting successively or at different levels upon the volume of air traveling from the fire pot through the exhaust apparatus and out through the stack thus giving the column of air an intermittent movement. The slow and fast move ments follow each other with great rapidity. To secure the best results the combined areas of the exhaust nozzles is preferably slightly less than that of each branch of the divided passage, but the areas of the divided passages, is greater than that of the exhaust ports, the tendency of which construction is to prolong the action of each cylinder discharge and lessen materially the interval of rest between each cylinder discharge. The base E which is preferably cast in one piece is provided with a central nozzle F of relatively small area and discharging vertically from the divided passage. Lateral passages G enter the base from opposite sides combining in a single central duct G immediately over the vided with induction openings I preferably located immediately over the induction openings G, said induction openings I passing into an annular opening 01 located between the ducts H H and opening between the nozzles h h into what might be termed a mingling chamber, the elfect of which is that products, gases, 850., drawn into the duct through the openings G are acted upon first by the steam escaping from the nozzle F by which they are given an impetus and then by the steam escaping through the nozzle H, g by which they are given another impetus then combining with products entering the openings I travel upward and are given a third impetus by steam escaping through the nozzle h. The combined body of upwardly rushing air and steam enters the smoke stack D carrying with it a large proportion of the products from the smoke box and ejecting the same high above the locomotive.

To prevent the accidental escape of any sparks or heavy cinders a netting K is passed across the upper portion of the smoke box immediately below the top of the exhaust pipe and the openings I and G are also covered by a screen, the latter opening G being covered by simply concavo convex screen plates K. Around the upper openings I is an inverted conical deflector M, the smaller end of which rests on the flange of the upper section of the exhaust pipe and from its upper edge, which it will be noted is some distance above the openings I a screen M extends in an inclined direction up to the body of the exhaust pipe. The defiector M draws thelighter smoke gases down and further serves to equalize the passage of the products through the fire tube or distributes the draft so to speak from the top to the bottom; and with a view to further increasing this effect, a deflector N extends from the front plate of the boiler above the fiues, out around the exhaust pipe above the netting M to a point near the front of the smoke box.

In front of the fire tubes and between the front plate of the boiler and exhaust apparatus is arranged adamper plate 0 having a series of horizontal independently operated dampers Pthereon any one or more of which may be opened to regulate the passage of the products through the fines and govern to a certain extent the portion of the grate surface through which the greater amount of air shall pass.

In operation, the successive cylinder exhausts each being subdivided into successive blasts, causes the column of air traveling through the grate, fire pot, fines and stack to have a rapid intermittent movement and the blast and parts are so regulated and proportioned that the fuel or a large portion of it at the top or hottest portion of the fire will be kept in a constant state of violent agitation and the ashes of the consumed particles of fuel are comminuted by abrasion against other particles or by the air acting against the same and converted into a fine powder which is then taken through the dues and ejected from the smoke stack together with the lighter waste products. This fine ash dust containing this silicious matter which ordinarily melts and forms clinkers, fioats readily through the upper hot portion of the fire box and escapes as described, while the heavier particles of fuel drop back during the intervals between the successive blasts. Hence the latter are never carried out of the fire box withouthaving the portions capable of being converted into heat effectually consumed.

It will be observed that the bridge wall serves to determine the height to which the fuel must be raised before it can be carried over into the fiues, that is to say, it operates to elevate the passage through which the pro ducts of combustion leave the fire box and enter the fines, and unless the draft at any time is of sufficient strength and duration to both raise and carry the unconsumed particles over the bridge wall, they cannot escape from the fire chamber. Now the intermitting pulsations are sufficient to raise these finer particles of unconsumed fuel, but the duration of individual pulsations in proportion to their strength is too short to carry the particles over the bridge wall. Consequently they are alternately elevated and dropped, only the finer particles or ash-dust being carried over. The power of the exhaust increases as you approach the exhaust pipe, hence the ash-dust when it passes the bridge wall is borne with increasing speed by the gaseous matter and is carried into the exhaust pipe and discharged through the smoke stack. The deflecting plate N aids this action by directing the gas, eous products and the ash-dust toward the inlets of the exhaust pipe, thus preventing ashdust from settling in the smoke box as it might otherwise do if the gaseous products carrying the ash-dust were permitted to diffuse th roughout the smoke box and form eddies in the upper part of the latter.

hen the engine or locomotive is at rest or running with steam shut off I design to maintain the draft by means of supplemental nozzles fed directly from the boiler, which nozzles I locate preferably at the bottom and top of the exhaust pipe. By reference to Fig. 2 it will be seen that the nozzle F is formed with an internal annular chamber R having discharge openings 0* at the top and the nozzle h has a central annular chamber S provided with discharge openings 3 at the top. These chambers are connected respectively by branch pipes T with a pipe U leading from the boiler. In the pipe U cock V is located adapted to be controlled by a longitudinal rod \V extending backinto the cab. It is obvious that the engineer might be relied upon to open this cock when the engine is at rest, but to insure this the adjustable end w of the rod W is located in position to be struck by the throttle lever X when the latter is moved to shut off the supply of steam to the cylinders, thereby making it impossible for the engineer to cut off the supply of steam from the cylinders without also opening the supply to the supplemental nozzles. The end w is made adjustable in order to vary the extent to which the cock is opened by the movement of the throttle lever as will be readily understood. The supplemental nozzles themselves are preferably made separate and independent of the exhaust pipe proper in order that nozzles of different diameter may be substituted or new nozzles inserted when the old ones are worn or injured.

Actual practice has demonstrated that while there is very little clinker producing material left in the fire box when my present invention is carried into practice, still there is comparatively little discharge from the smoke stack which will be carried back into the train and this I attribute to the fact that the ash and other particles are reduced to such an impalpable powder that when they are violently ejected from the stack they arise with the gases and lighter products and float in the air until the train has passed.

It is obvious that the successful embodiment of this invention leads to the most important practical results inasmuch as the labor entailed upon the fireman and engineer is greatly lessened and the steaming capacity or efiiciency of the locomotive materially increased.

By the employment of the supplemental nozzles which are brought into operation Whenever the cylinder exhausts are cut off, the interior of the pipe is kept free from all deposit and what is of equally great importance by maintaining the draft through the exhaust pipe the fine ashes, &c., are prevented from working back beneath the valves a trouble which has heretofore been deemed unavoidable.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new is- 1. The herein described method of promoting combustion consisting in maintaining the fuel in a state of agitation by means of an intermittent draft, the maximum power of which is sufficient to raise said fuel, but the duration too short to carry the'fuel out of the fire box and the minimum power of which is insufficient to maintain the fuel above the body of the fire; substantially as described.

2. The combination with alocomotive boiler having the fire pot and bridge wall within the fire pot extending up in front of the flue, of an exhaust pipe having exhaust nozzles arranged to act successively on the column of air, whereby fuel is raised from the body of the fire by each successive impulse but is prevented from escaping from the fire pot into the flues, by the bridge wall; substantially as described.

3. In an exhaust apparatus, the combination with the smoke box,the exhaust pipe located therein having the lateral air openings at the bottom, of the deflector plate N located between the top of the exhaust pipe and lateral air openings; substantially as described.

4. In an exhaust apparatus, the combination with the smoke box, the exhaust pipe having the lateral air openings therein and the inverted screen covered cone inclosing the said openings, of the deflector plate N located between the top of the cone and end of the pipe; substantially as described.

5. In an exhaust apparatus, the combination with the fire box, the exhaust pipe located therein having the lateral air openings, and the inverted screen covered cone inclosing said openings, of the inclined deflector N and the screen K located between the top of the cone and end of the pipe; substantially as described.

. JOHN Y. SMITH.

WVitnesses:

ALEX. S. STEWART, MELVILLE CHURCH. 

